Archive

What We Really Mean

Posted 5:18pm Sunday 3rd March 2013 by Ines Shennan

With a critical and cynical eye, Ines Shennan elaborates on her deeply-held concern that media campaigns rely on and exploit social norms in order to achieve their corporate agendas. The ability of broad media campaigns to reinforce cultural hegemony is enormous and we must scrutinise the Read more...

The Coolest Otago Uni Papers You've Never Heard Of

Posted 9:40pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Zane Pocock

It’s lucky that you’re allowed to change subjects within the first two weeks of study. If you suddenly realise that no one really becomes a doctor, or that LAWS101 is a waste of time, check out Critic’s guide to setting up an interesting and varied six-paper year that will make you both a master of Read more...

#Pride #Prejudice #Hashtag @Critic

Posted 9:40pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Where the fuck is the city? I whispered to myself as the airplane landed in a patchwork of green and yellow fields. Were we still in New Zealand? How much more land can there be south of the Bombay hills? Was Kim Jong-un actually the world’s sexiest man? Questions filled my head. While I panicked Read more...

Three Dunedin North MPs

Posted 9:40pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Brittany Mann

Michael Woodhouse Michael Woodhouse is a Dunedin North-based National MP. So it has been about a year since you last chatted to Critic and I understand you’ve undergone some professional changes. You’re now a minister, congratulations. Thank you. So when I spoke to Read more...

How Wack Is Crack?

Posted 9:40pm Sunday 24th February 2013 by Anonymous

Poor, poor methamphetamine. It’s the Tourism of the drug world – condemned, stigmatised, and used by the dregs of society. Despite a vast array of fresh-faced, apple-cheeked ambassadors, including the Luftwaffe, Antonie Dixon, and that dilapidated whore from Breaking Bad, it’s been Read more...

New Zealanders of the Year

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Staff Reporter

Bromance Of The Year Harlene Hayne and Logan EdgarHarlene Hayne and Logan Edgar, BFFLs. As the only two people who would deign to let me interview them, I thought they should be given the privilege of telling you about their awesome friendship themselves. How does it feel to be selected as Read more...

The Future Freaks Me Out

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Zane Pocock

Over the next 20 years, a lot is set to change in the world of technology. Electric cars will drive themselves, robots will interact with us better than humans do, and augmented reality (the interaction between computer-generated sensory input and our visible reality) will become commonplace. Chief Read more...

The Little Scarfie Who Could

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Joe Stockman

When Harriet Geoghegan mysteriously resigned as OUSA President in the middle of 2011 (Critic has always suspected it was following a failed illicit affair with a fellow execie, or possibly some sort of Dan Stride-Francisco Hernandez-related love triangle), no one thought that the self-proclaimed Read more...

Going Going Gone

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Katie Kenny

We live in a predominantly sedentary, appearance-obsessed society. The media alternates between promoting food products and bombarding us with idealised images of thin, toned figures. Obesity is the First World’s leading cause of preventable death, but despite this, a small population are bucking Read more...

A Beginner’s Guide to the American Presidential Elections

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Michael Neilson

WARNING: This article is an attempt to decipher the American Presidential elections. Depending on your level of interest in politics, it will either provide you with entertainment or act as a light sedative. Regardless, it will contain violence, drug use, and offensive language.DISCLAIMER I Read more...

The Good Book

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Anonymous

There are many things in the world that simultaneously confuse and disgust me. Gherkins, overheard conversations between pairs of girls in the Link, the very existence of Brimstone — all disturbing, but none quite so much as the great unbelievable fact of the modern era: that the presumably-atheist Read more...

Hernandez Wins

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Callum Fredric

Francisco Hernandez has been elected as OUSA President for 2013 after a hard-fought campaign. Hernandez received 1163 of the 3620 votes cast, with his nearest rival Ryan Edgar receiving 965 votes, closely followed by Zac Gawn with 842 votes. The election results were announced on Thursday Read more...

XX vs XY

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Lauren Wootton

“Here’s the difference between boys and girls: boys fuck things up, girls are fucked up.” - Louis C.K. Everybody knows there are a few fundamental differences between boys and girls. But what might seem like minor anatomical dissimilarities can become a monumental chasm in the bedroom. Read more...

Make Me Mansome

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Sam Valentine

In today’s society, there’s an entire micro-economy dedicated to self-improvement. Whether it’s weight loss, hair removal, or beautification, an array of uplifting rhetoric and often excruciating services exist to further humanity’s quest for actualization, improvement, and ultimately happiness. Read more...

I’ll think of a title tomorrow

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Michael Neilson

“I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do – the day after tomorrow.” - Oscar Wilde For some, writing a feature article in one day might be daunting. But I would rather it were always this way. As a fourth-year with admittedly unhealthy study habits, my brain has become so Read more...

Who wants to be an OUSA PRESIDENT?

Posted 8:49pm Thursday 20th September 2012 by Staff Reporter

Thank god for term limits ay. Logan Edgar can’t run again, leaving the position of OUSA President wide open. And the scarfies are lining up to replace him. Unfortunately they’re all ugly as sin, and to make it worse, all dudes. Seriously where the ladies at? But you can’t win them all right? So it’s Read more...

Here Are Your Candidates

Posted 8:49pm Thursday 20th September 2012 by Staff Reporter

It is OUSA election time. This is your chance to decide who’s going to run your students’ assocation throughout 2013. These guys are going to be controlling how over $3million dollars of your levies are spent, as well as setting the long term direction for the assocation. So get out and learn about Read more...

U-Create

Posted 4:57pm Sunday 16th September 2012 by Katie Kenny

In Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed dystopian thriller, Never Let Me Go, art is literally a lifeline for the novel’s doomed characters, Tommy and Kathy. “That’s the whole thing about art,” explains Tommy. “It says what’s inside of you; it reveals your soul.” Cuts to CreativitySome would say, Read more...

Apollo’s Arrow

Posted 4:57pm Sunday 16th September 2012 by Josef Alton

Stage 10 of the 2001 Tour de France was a climb in the French Alps involving three above category hill climbs, summiting at the legendary ski resort l’Alpe d’Huez. It is the first mountain stage of the world-renowned bicycle race. Early in the day, Jan Ullrich had eased into the lead of the peloton Read more...

What The Art

Posted 4:57pm Sunday 16th September 2012 by Zane Pocock

As a form of expression and communication, art has been around for almost as long as humanity. The brain is hard-wired to appreciate the aesthetic, and the deeper readings of conceptual art can prove incredibly rewarding for those that way inclined. But interesting though it is, the complexity of Read more...

The Great Critic Politics Quiz

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Callum Fredric

Are you jealous of friends who describe themselves as “progressive,” “right-wing,” or “conservative”? Do you desperately yearn to categorise your political views into a neat little box? If so, good news! Critic’s resident political scientists, Callum Fredric and Sam McChesney, have studied Read more...

Is The Treaty Dead?

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Lauren Wootton

I know what you’re thinking – not another article about the Treaty of Waitangi and race relations in New Zealand. Bring back the blind date lesbian sex! The only people who even have to deal with Treaty stuff are law students and people who study it, right? Wrong. As New Zealanders, we enjoy the Read more...

21st Century Scarfies: Too Cool to Care?

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Michael Neilson

“If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all their youthful vim and vigour, then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better the world for tomorrow.” - William Allen White, influential Read more...

Two Little Boys

Posted 4:03pm Sunday 9th September 2012 by Joe Stockman

New Zealand’s best known film-making duo Robert and Duncan Sarkies have teamed up with Oscar winner Bret McKenzie and Aussie comedian Hamish Blake, of Hamish and Andy fame, for their latest Kiwi movie, Two Little Boys. Joe Stockman indulged in an early screening of the film and caught up with Bret Read more...

The Four Most Intolerable Travel Companions

Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Anonymous

Third world travel is tough. Those pesky crippled and starving locals are constantly hanging around making you feel bad about spending what they’d make in a month on a totally necessary supply of hash and a bottle of “Real’s” whiskey. Not to mention the nerve of their assumption that Western women Read more...

Chasing the Blue Dragon

Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Michael Neilson

A glimpse into the unique life of the travelling surfer, who scours the globe in pursuit of the ultimate fix. I’m guessing that most of you have either already travelled or can’t wait to kiss your degree goodbye and boost off to some faraway corner of the globe. For surfers, the same Read more...

Itchy Feet

Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Joe Stockman

After three, four, or more years at university, most students are pretty keen to get overseas as soon as possible. Whether it’s going on exchange, heading to London for the big OE, or backpacking in Southeast Asia, the drive to travel is an innate part of the Kiwi psyche. Well-travelled ol’ man Joe Read more...

The War at Home

Posted 5:17pm Sunday 2nd September 2012 by Zane Pocock

When Goff goofed up the 2011 election, he valiantly handed the reins to one of Labour’s many Davids, namely David Shearer, who is thought to be Labour’s answer to John Key in sheer blokiness. Yet many New Zealanders continue to ask, “David who?” Critic editor Joe Stockman caught up with Shearer for Read more...

Two Hours with Louis Crimp

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Callum Fredric

An interview with the outspoken and often offensive multi-millionaire about life, cats, Maori culture, and sex against trees. When I first came up with the idea of interviewing Louis Crimp, I had a very simple agenda – to get as many outrageous quotes as possible. The Invercargill Read more...

Bursting The Bubble of The Clean Green Myth

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Jordan Maynard

As a Canadian exchange student, I have the impression that pride in New Zealand’s farming history is ingrained in every Kiwi outside of Auckland. But what exactly do you Southerners have to be proud of? Is New Zealand’s clean green agricultural image real, or just a marketing façade to separate you Read more...

The Children of Parihaka

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Katie Kenny

The New Zealand Film Festival screening of Tatarakihi: The Children of Parihaka, directed by Paora Te Oti Takarangi Joseph, left me feeling seriously ignorant of Dunedin’s local history. You see, I had no idea that the streets upon which we walk daily – High Street, Stuart Street, the Read more...

Jimmy Boy

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 19th August 2012 by Claudia Herron

Esteemed moral philosopher and historian Emeritus Professor James R Flynn has a staggering breadth of knowledge in fields of philosophy, psychology, and politics, on topics ranging from human ideals to race, class, and IQ. After a near 30-year reign as Head of the Politics Department at the Read more...

New Zealand's Most Inspirational Celebrities

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Anonymous

The front page of this week’s Sunday Star Times offered a fetching full-page graphic of our victorious Olympic gold medallists, punctuated by the witty headline “IT’S RAINING MEDALS!” Our Olympic success naturally deserves recognition, but I can’t help but worry that this wanton, vulgar celebration Read more...

Get Your Faith On

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Joe Stockman

“Thank God I’m an Atheist” - Luis Bunuel It would be pretty easy, too easy, for a student magazine to write an article about religion and simply tear it down. Religion is stupid in the face of any form of rationality. Pretty much every faith asks you to believe in something unseen – a Read more...

Dunedin's Sons of Abraham

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Michael Neilson

Before getting started, I should clarify that the title of this article does not refer to a couple of blokes you might catch down at the Cook on a Thursday night. Abraham and his sons Isaac and Ishmael provide the historical and spiritual roots of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. University Read more...

Fag?

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 12th August 2012 by Zane Pocock

Members of OUSA-affiliated society UniQ have been revolting against Critic’s Straight Up column due to columnist Dame La Dida’s usage of the words “fag” and “faggot”. Things reached fever pitch on Facebook last week after Critic printed a letter to, and a response from, Dame La Dida in last week's Read more...

The Three WORST Flatmates

Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Anonymous

Existentalist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre famously concluded that hell is other people. As my degree stretches into its fifth year, I am convinced that Sartre’s relentlessly bleak view of humanity was developed after an episode of time travel in which he spent half a decade flatting in Dunedin. The Read more...

Need a Dollar

Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Katie Kenny

Tacked to the wall above my deskis a note from my sister Charlotte: “Don’t spend all your $$$! xox”. Her warning is not a joke, or even an exaggeration. My ever-sensible sister has been my ready-cash rescuer and my financial conscience all too often. We all have our Read more...

Flatting 101

Posted 4:49pm Sunday 5th August 2012 by Lauren Wootton

It’s that time of year again – every knock at the door is another group of students hoping to look around “really quick” to see what is up for grabs. Going flatting is a rite of passage for students, signifying a new independence away from parents or the swipe card-dominated 10pm Quiet Time of hall Read more...

Dolphin Wars

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012 by Margot Taylor

They are one of those quintessential creatures that people just love, aren’t they. Dolphins fill crappy children’s movies, decorate our toilet paper, and are used by the New Zealand tourism industry to attract tourists who pay up to $200 for a chance to dive into our icy waters and hopefully swim Read more...

A Long Journey Home

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012 by Michael Neilson

We’ve all been in situations where we don’t feel safe and need to escape. Maybe it was a sober night at Monkey Bar, a slightly-too-ruckus Castle St party, or being confronted by a stranger in a dark alley. I was chased down Arthur Street by a drugged-out lunatic at 2am just last week. But luckily Read more...

An Unnecessarily Clinical and Probably Inaccurate Analysis of New Zealand's Olympic Team

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012 by Gus Gawn

185 New Zealand athletes will compete across 21 sports at the London 2012 Olympics. That's a lot. It puts us in the top 20 nations in the world in terms of numbers competing. Britain will have the most, with 542 athletes competing across all 26 sports. 21 sports is a lot of sports to know Read more...

Prof. Alan Musgrave

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 29th July 2012 by Bella Macdonald

Over 40 years of research and dedication to the University of Otago Philosophy department has paid off for Professor Alan Musgrave after being awarded an Otago University Distinguished Research Medal. The medal is Otago University’s highest research honour. It rewards and recognises outstanding Read more...

The Annual Critic Sex Toy Review

Posted 10:46am Sunday 22nd July 2012 by Anonymous

Personal development guru Tony Robbins is famous for breathlessly rhapsodising to lumpen Wal-Mart shelf-stackers that the fastest route to career success and satisfaction is to find something you love doing, and make it your job. I spend most of my time lying in bed with the curtains drawn jerking Read more...

What is Beauty?

Posted 10:46am Sunday 22nd July 2012 by Katie Kenny

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." - — John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” You’re likely thinking, quite rightly, “Oh, how typical for Katie to be given a brief on beauty and to employ poetry...” However, before you condemn my Read more...

Te Wiki o Te Reo

Posted 10:46am Sunday 22nd July 2012 by Gianna Leoni

Hei aha te nui, te iti rānei (No matter how big or how small)Indigenous languages are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. In recent months I have been fortunate enough to meet and listen to different indigenous peoples from around the world, which has made me aware of how lucky we are here in Read more...

It is How We're Drinking

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 15th July 2012 by Katie Kenny

Is student drinking really a problem? Aren’t we just young people having a good time, getting a bit loose with our mates, and enjoying ourselves while we still can? Katie Kenny takes a look at the damage that can be caused when we go a bit too far with the booze. According to the Ministry of Read more...

What The Drunk?

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 15th July 2012 by Lauren Wootton

On any given night of the week scarfies and their friends go out to play, and nine times out of ten their sport of choice is drinking. Getting booze is easy, and getting drunk is even easier. But why does alcohol make us feel so good (and then oh-so-bad)? And what is it actually doing to us? Read more...

Beer, Glorious Beer

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 15th July 2012 by Zane Pocock

As someone who’s all too familiar with the epic nights of a student and spent the prior night sinking piss at a work function, going Gonzo for a feature on beer didn’t seem like a great concept, but my trepidation was brief. I had forgotten that real beer need not be associated with slabs of SoGos Read more...

State of The Nation

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 8th July 2012 by Michael Neilson

Before getting started, I must admit that, as a fourth-year Politics student, assessing the National Party’s second term in government for my first feature is like a dream come true. A sad dream (and a confession likely to diminish my chances of getting laid for a while), but a dream Read more...